Breathe Me
by A'isha Ishtar
Summary: Inspired by HeartofSilence's "Synthesis". Things can go wrong, you know... terribly wrong. It wasn't anybody's fault, but it will be everyone's price to pay. There's no one to blame, but that doesn't change what's happened.


**... Uhh well, I'm not sure I have an explanation. I never have an explanation for any of my Thrax stories...**

**AND I NEVER WILL.**

**So anyway, as I said in the summary, this was inspired by HeartofSilence's awesome story "Synthesis". GO READ IT NOW BECAUSE IT'S WAY BETTER THAN THIS THING.**

**But I'd appreciate it if you read this too. XD**

**Okay, I hope you guys like. And review, 'cause Osmosis Jones stories lack reviews very much...**

**Hopefully every chapter will start with a quote from a song that I think fits either the chapter or fits Thrax in general - kid self or not. Even if it fits HIM, I'll try to pick ones that fit the chapter too.**

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><p><em>Help, I have done it again...<em>

~ "Breathe Me" by Sia

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><p>"Where did he even come from, Jim?"<p>

"Hell, I don't know."

"Well, where did you find him?"

"Crys, I picked the kid up on the side of the road. I was going _home_."

"So why'd you stop then? I mean, he's a virus."

"Yeah, but he's just a _kid_. He obviously needed help, he was passed out when I found him."

"So you brought him back here so we could help him."

"Yup."

His head was fuzzy, and his body felt heavy, like he couldn't move. And he couldn't. He didn't even want to put forth the effort to try; it was too hard. A dull ache pounded all over his body, and he was tired. How come he hadn't stayed asleep then? Why was he awake?

Those voices woke him up. What were they talking about? Were they talking about him? They must have been.

If he moved, it would hurt even worse. But he wanted to see who these people were, if they were trying to help him. He couldn't remember what happened, or where he was, and his name was blinking just barely in the back of his mind. Maybe they knew what had happened.

He blinked his eyes open, though his vision was blurry. It was hard to see, but there were outlines - two shapes that looked vaguely like cells. A few more blinks, and they became clearer. It was a woman, and a man. The woman was sitting down, and the man was at a computer; they were talking. Talking about him.

He couldn't speak, but he felt he should have been commended for his effort. He tried _so hard_. He tried to make the vocal cords in his throat vibrate, but it just wouldn't happen. He did the best he could, but all that came out was a low gurgling noise that in his opinion sounded rather disgusting.

Immediately the woman jumped up and faced him. "Hey! Hey, Jim, I think he's waking up!"

"Is he?" The man, Jim obviously, stood up from the computer (much slower than the woman had) and started walking over. "Son, can you hear us?"

"Give him some room to breathe, Jim!" The woman knelt down by his side and put her hand on his head, where he could feel some kind of weird hairstyle. It wasn't normal hair like the woman's, that was for sure, it was different. Sectioned, almost. "Hi there." Her voice was soft, breathy, and kind of comforting, especially considering he could remember next to nothing. Just hearing her talk calmed him down a little bit, he could tell that she was going to try and help him. "You've been sleeping awhile."

He opened up his mouth, not quite knowing what he wanted to say. He groaned, still trying to make sounds, but nothing came out. So he just poked his tongue out and licked at the side of his mouth, trying to think of some way he could tell them _anything_. Besides, he was hungry. Maybe licking his mouth would tell them that, at least.

"Aw, look at you." The woman scooted her chair closer and sat down again, sliding her hand down to his back. She looked up at Jim without taking her hand off his back. "Where exactly did you say you found him, Jim?"

"Well, Jade's sake, I found him by the side of the main road at the teeth. I was on my way home, just saw him lying there." Jim rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't think he was gonna wake up this soon."

The virus looked over at the woman; he didn't know her name yet. He did his best to move, but only succeeded in bumping his elbow against her. Even that little movement was slow, grueling, and painful. It truly did hurt to move.

Her attention snapped back to him. "What is it, honey?"

He flicked his eyes from one side of the room, back to her, slowly and deliberately.

At first her eyebrows furrowed together, as she was probably trying to figure out what he wanted. Then she pointed to herself with her whole hand. "... Me?"

He nodded as much as he could, but his neck was stiff and the movement was barely noticeable.

"You want to know... who I am?"

He blinked a few times, and nodded again. This time it was a little easier to move, and he noticed it was a bit less sore.

She smiled slightly at that, and began to rub his back. "My name's Crystal. I'm a doctor. Jim's the one who found you, but we're both going to take care of you. Okay? We just want to help you. Do you understand that?"

He still couldn't find his voice. He was tired and hungry and confused and he just wanted everything to make sense again. It seemed like Crystal and Jim were going to try and make sense of everything for him, so he just nodded.

Crystal moved her hand up again, and ran it through his parted hair. He wasn't even sure what color his hair was, but she seemed to like the feel of it. "I'm going to ask you a few questions, okay? And I want you to answer honestly. You're not going to help us get anywhere if you lie. Tell us the truth. Alright? I promise you won't get in trouble, no matter what you tell us."

Nod. Blink. Blink.

"What happened to you?"

He tried hard to remember, but nothing was coming to mind. There was a faint spark, but it quickly fizzled out, leaving him with no idea of what he'd been doing to have been asleep on the side of the road, where Jim said he'd found him. Had someone hurt him? Or taken him from somewhere and left him? He wasn't sure; he couldn't bring forth an image of what had occurred. So he simply looked up at Crystal and shook his head.

"You don't know?"

Shake.

"Well... where were you before? Do you know that?"

Again, he couldn't conjure up any picture of family or friends, or anyone that meant a thing to him. Nothing popped into his mind - like he'd been alone his whole life. Had he been? He shook his head again, and noticed it was becoming less stiff and painful with every motion.

"You... don't remember?" Crystal looked so disappointed. He hated to make that look come up on her face, but he just couldn't remember anything.

Shake. Then he looked down at his lap, suddenly feeling cold and prickly all over. Like something bad was going to happen.

"Can't you talk, babe?"

He closed his eyes, opening his mouth slightly.

"Oh. Too tired to talk, I see." Crystal sighed, and looked back up at Jim, a sad look adorning her features as she continued to stroke his hair. "Jim, he's so confused. He doesn't remember anything... do you think maybe he got hit on the head and lost his memory?"

Jim shrugged. "I don't know... it's possible, I guess. But for Jade's sake, who would do that to a child? It certainly doesn't look like he would have anything of value. He doesn't know who his parents are, and he's a virus, so I doubt it was about money or power, if his parents are viruses too. What would anybody have to gain by radnomly leaving a virus kid on the side of the road?"

"I can't think of any benefits it'd get." Crystal turned back to the virus, then her eyes widened. "Wait, hold on." She pulled the blanket back, exposing a black leather rope wrapped around his left wrist, and around a claw on that hand that was about twice the length of his others. "What's this?" She reached for it, slipping her finger under it to remove it.

He wasn't sure what it was either, but he got the feeling that it was important to him. And it was a strong feeling, like he needed it. So he yanked his hand back away from her, even though it sent a shooting pain up his arm, all the way up to his shoulder.

Crystal drew her hand back a little. "Okay, okay," she shushed. "It's alright, I promise I'll give it back. I just want to look at it."

He slowly uncoiled his fingers, holding it out for her in his palm.

She took it and laid it flat on both of her hands, examining it. She raised an eyebrow, glancing over at Jim without moving her head. "It's a DNA chain. But it's empty - doesn't have any beads on it."

"Huh." Jim took it from her, looking at it too. "Well, from what I know, viruses sometimes give them to their kids - you know, when they get the right age to start infecting. Maybe it was a birthday present or something."

Crystal nodded, taking it back. "So how old would that make him? Six, seven?"

"I'd say seven... eight... nine. I can't tell exactly, but viruses are similar to cells in how fast they grow. So I'd guess anywhere from seven to nine, somewhere in that range."

She pressed her lips together, turning the chain over in her fingers. Then her eyes widened. "Wait a second. It looks like something's written on the back here." She flipped the chain inside out and focused on the apparent inscription. "I think it says... 'Thrax'." She looked up, and met the child's eyes. "Is that your name? Thrax? Is that you?"

He rolled the name around in his mind. It did sound familiar, but was that his name? Or was it someone else's? He puffed out a breath before trying to think about it again. Well, why would he have this chain thing if it belonged to someone else? Maybe "Thrax" was the name of the person who'd given it to him. But then it suddenly clicked - the name that had been lingering in the back of his mind, _his_ name, that was it. He brought his eyes up to meet hers again, and answered with another nod.

"Thrax. Alright then." She proceeded to replace the chain back around his wrist, then looked up at Jim. "Well, we know his name now. Maybe we can search the databases and see if anything shows up."

"I seriously doubt it," Jim replied, though he was walking back over to the computer. "I mean, he's a virus, Crys. It's not our job to provide or retrieve information on random viruses, especially considering that he might not even be from Jade."

"'Might not'? Try probably not. I don't think he even has any idea where he is." Crystal looked back at Thrax. "You don't know where you are, do you?"

He shook his head. He didn't even know where he was _from_, why would he know where he was right now?

"Aw." She scooted closer and pulled him in to her, wrapping her arms around him as best she could since he was lying down. She had to stand up and kind of lean over the bed. He didn't return it, and he kept stiff, but it was still nice to feel someone else's body so close to him, promising him that everything was going to be okay. "Don't worry, Thrax. We'll figure all this out. We're going to get you taken care of."

"Nothing's coming up on him," came Jim's voice from over by the computer. There was the clacking of keys, probably Jim trying a different phrase or spelling his name differently. He sounded tired, though, like he didn't want to deal with this situation - or Thrax himself - right now. "How do you spell that?"

"It's probably like 'T-H-R-A-X' or something," Crystal answered, pulling away from Thrax and sitting back. For the first time since he'd woken up, he didn't have her touch against him.

"I tried that."

"Try an 'e' instead of an 'a'."

Sigh.

Crystal stood up, gesturing to Thrax that she'd be back in just a minute. "Why don't you just head home, Jim? You were going anyway, when you found him. And it's my shift. You go home, I'll stay with him."

Jim got up, rubbing at the back of his neck again. "Are you sure, Crys? I mean, do we even know if he's dangerous or not?"

"Oh, look at him." She strolled back over and stroked his hair again. "He couldn't hurt a fly cell. Besides, he's just a kid. Even if he _was_ contagious, he probably wouldn't have the first clue about how to spread his infection. And his memory's kaput except for his name, he wouldn't remember anyhow."

Jim sighed, obviously resigned to the fact that she wasn't going to let him stay, but still looking worried. "Alright, fine. But you better watch him."

"Well, I'm going to let him _sleep_."

"Yeah, yeah, I mean - just look out for anything suspicious, okay, Crys?"

"Can do, Jim." She waved at him. "Buh-bye, now. And look, if it helps, we can do some tests on him in the morning. We need to assess his condition anyway."

Jim rolled his eyes, but picked up a bag that was sitting by the computer - obviously his. "Alright, alright, I'm leaving, Crys. Sheesh. Take care of the kid _and_ the hospital, okay? See you in the morning, after we've all gotten some sleep and can start piecing all this together."

"See you then, Jim."

The door closed, and Thrax let himself relax a little. Maybe Jim would be in a better mood tomorrow; more willing to deal with him and this whole situation.

Crystal saw the visible change, as his small body let go of some stiffness and he seemed to let out that breath he'd been holding. She giggled, tracing her hand down his cheek. "I know, he can be a grouch when he doesn't get his sleep, huh? But he's a good doctor."

Thrax pulled away from her touch violently at first, when her hand came into contact with his skin. Then he slowly inched his head forward again, toward her hand. It had been momentarily shocking, but her hand was nice and cool, and while the rest of his body was shivering, his face was hot. It would be good if she could cool him down enough so he could sleep comfortably.

She didn't put her hand back on his face right away. She looked confused, staring at him for a minute as he stared back, silently begging for another dose of her touch. And he got it, when she tentatively reached back out to him and put her hand palm-down on his forehead. Almost immediately she went to pull it back, probably because she was surprised at how hot his face was.

Thrax groaned, not wanting her to take her hand away.

Crystal kept her hand there for just a minute, then took it away, blinking down at the child in her care. "Thrax. You're burning up - how are you this warm? You're a virus, there shouldn't be anything attacking your system like this."

Thrax slowly reached out with his left hand, out toward Crystal. He knew he was hot, and he wanted her cold, calming hand against his skin, and he wanted it to _stay_ there for once. He grabbed her wrist, but because he was so weak his fingers slipped off almost instantly, back into his lap.

Crystal yanked her hand back faster than she had the first time, feeling a searing pain creeping into her wrist. She took a step away from Thrax's bed and looked down at her arm. There wasn't any real unusual color to it, but it was clear that one of his claws had cut her skin. "Thrax... are you okay?"

No. No, he _wasn't_ okay. He was tired and hungry and his body couldn't decide if it should be cold or hot. He just wanted to slip back into unconsciousness and wake up when hopefully everything was normal. He let his body fall, his head hitting the pillow, and he whimpered.

He felt Crystal's hand on his arm, gripping it, and her warm, minty breath against his face. "Oh, _Jade_. Thrax, I have to take your temperature."

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><p><strong>OK! Hope you liked the first installment.<strong>

**Annnnnd random Osmosis Jones question of the day: How many times can someone listen to Thrax say "Hi baby~!" before getting bored?**

**Me? ... Well, probably about fifteen or twenty times, in all honesty, before I'd giggle like a weirdo while closing the page and going to write a story about him. XD**

**Hope you guys liked, and reviews are always appreciated! Let me know if you like it, what I can add to make it better.**

**Thanks for reading! ^^**


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